Police confirm Maoist presence on Kerala-K'taka border

After months of speculation, it’s been confirmed now that Maoists are setting up base in the forests of Kerala, which in the 1970s was the hotbed of a radical Naxalite movement.For the last few days, Malayalam media have reported the presence of an armed group moving in the forests of the Kerala-Karnataka border. On Thursday, PTI quoted the superintendent of police in Kannur, a northern Kerala district, confirming the presence of Maoists.

"We have confirmed the presence of Maoists along the Kerala-Karnataka border, but are yet to ascertain the number of persons in the group or the type of weaponry used," he said.The police stations in Wayanad and Kannur districts have been put on high alert and combing operations are being undertaken by the Kerala and Karnataka police. Two battalions of specially trained “Thunderbolt” commandos have also joined the forest officials.Reportedly, the additional arms in several police stations in Kannur district have been moved to a safer sub-division. Local media channels showed the leaflets distributed by the Maoists.Initial reports indicate that the gang has five members and one of them is a Keralite.Malayala Manorama reported that two excise officials from Kerala saw the armed group, which also had a Karnataka police guard as captive. As soon as they saw the excise officials, they disappeared into the forest. Local villagers have apparently recognised some of them as radicals wanted by the Karnataka police.The members of the group apparently collected ration such as rice, oil and salt from the border villagers. Reportedly, they ate from a villager’s house and asked him to get provision from the market.The presence of radical Left activists in Kerala has been reported for quite some time now; however, this is the first time that an armed group has been spotted.For the media in the state, it is prime time news and the suspected presence of a Keralite adds more intrigue. Some of them speculated that it was a 43-year-old man who has been in hiding for a few years. He and his wife are known Maoist sympathisers with a record of clean-politics from their college days and have not been seen in public for some time. Border villagers have told the police that one of the members of the group spoke in Malayalam, which strengthened the speculation.